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Friday, January 9, 2015

2015 Update: Stuff I Want to Remember about Life Right Now

I started to write a witty little facebook status about some cute things the kids have done lately. Three paragraphs into the construction of the status update, I decided it was best to just write those things here on the blog. I'm not sure how witty this hodge-podge blog post is going to be, but these things are important to me. They are the things I want to remember about my little family and our lives together - today.

Lincoln: He is such a goofy, hilarious, observant little boy!
He read his first word on Tuesday, January 6th: "mat." He was so
excited he jumped up and hugged me. He was laughing with delight at learning a
new skill. He feels silly when he works on writing letters and they look,
"a little wonky." I do my best to introduce him to all kinds of music
(Jazz, Classical, Symphonic, International, etc.) and his favorite station on
Pandora is?. . . Weird Al Yankovic. While I was boiling pasta for mac and
cheese (deceptively
delicious style) he said, "The noodles are dancing in the
bubbles!" Also, he requests for Atley to nurse his bunny, and gets upset
if/when she refuses to, "But he's hungry! My bunny needs to eat!!" He
loves to be read to. The other day I read Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece to the kids before
nap time. Lincoln was walking around the house later that day singing, "Oh,
I'm looking for my missing piece, I'm looking for my missing piece.
High-dee-ho, here I go, I'm looking for my missing piece!" He's getting
schooled in the ways of old school cartoons by his dad: on Saturday mornings he
gets to watch one episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Spiderman, and eat
a bowl of sugar cereal. (Sugar cereal from his Dad's Christmas stash - the poor man requested Peanut Butter Crunch as a gift this year, as I've been depriving him for about a year, now. ;) ) He started attending Sunbeams on Sunday. I think he
was both excited and shell-shocked by the transition. He ran to hug his dad
when he saw him in singing time. (We team teach the other Sunbeam class together in
our ward.) I'm looking forward to seeing him warm up to the whole experience
and really start singing in singing time because he has a great ear and voice for
music. He'll be four in February.

Atley: She is one sweet, independent little gal as evidenced
by her insistence that she do everything "self!!" But she isn't so
independent that she doesn't love to snuggle close to me in bed each morning
and whisper, "Love you, Mama. Love you." She is often wearing several
dress-ups and accessories at the same time. This little woman has style! She
LOVES pink so much that it is a rare day (and very precariously discussed) that
I can get her to wear anything else. She got a play food set for her second
birthday - the kind that slices apart. She brought me a piece of bread with a
strawberry attached at the velcro and said it was bread with jam. We recently
fought (and won!) the"like
it!" (Translation: "I don't like it!") food battle with her and
she is feeling pretty proud to be eating food on her plate, "Self!"
She has the cutest little nasally voice. She loves her baby
"Jothelyn" and helps me by bringing me dipes and wipes for her. She
also helps me put away the dishes from the dishwashing machine each morning.
She is quick to be a helper and listener which is wonderful for her mama! Sometimes, she whispers her answers to questions I ask her. I have no idea why she does this, but it makes me laugh. Squire has been away for interviews a lot lately, and Atley always insists we pray for "Daddeeeeee! or "Daddy-O."

Jocelyn: She is very observant and alert. She is really
cooing and baby talking now which I adore as much as her bright smile
that can be found in both her mouth and sweet round blue eyes - these often go together - double win! She is keeping
her baby hair so far *fingers crossed we bypass the old man hair-do.* It is still
light brown, but auburnish in the right light. She has one longer patch of hair
on the crown of her head that curls straight up. I call her my little cockatoo
because of this. She is calm in nature, but very active and strong. She loves
being worn in my Sakura ring sling - she requests with some squawking to face
out to see the world these days. She is delighted by the toys that hang from
the bar in her bouncer and coos at them with joy. She nurses great and sleeps a
manageable amount. I'm not a total zombie! ;) She is gaining weight and her double chin is
growing, but she has a less chunky baby body than Atley did so her g cloth
diapers fit just right.

Squire: Squire has been interviewing at residency programs
all over the Western part of the United States (Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho,
Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada) for the last couple of months which has
kept him away from home quite a bit. He just finished an independent study and
wrote a research paper on Obesity and ways to treat it with lifestyle and
medicine. He is almost done with medical school at the U of A and will graduate
this May!!! I'm not sure which one of us is more excited. Our 3 1/2 years in
Tucson have gone by in the blink of eye. He loves to listen to Dave Ramsey
while helping around the house or wood-working, and he is excited to start
making money so that we can pay off our debt. He doesn't care that we have a
lot of money, he just wants to be able to care for his family's needs and do
that with a career he has felt led to do by God. I'm so proud of all he has
accomplished, and the good, loving man that he is. He has the most unique dance
moves I've ever seen - those get busted out regularly for Hepworth family only dance parties. ;) He is always
reading a novel of some kind to the kids. This past year he read the first
couple of books from the Little House on
the Prairie series, and is currently reading Charlotte's Web to them. He is so loved by our kidlets. They like
to ride him like a cow. Not a horse. A cow. We just read Christmas Jars together - a tear-jerker that inspired us to implement a new family tradition in our home.

Me: I am feeling overwhelmed . . . with joy and peace! I
love my life and my little family! I never divulged much on this blog, but last
year for several months (really, much of the year before I got pregnant with
Jocelyn) I had a lot of struggles with my physical and emotional health. I
suspect I was struggling with adrenal fatigue and some postpartum depression.
It was hard. Really hard. There was a
lot of time when I didn't know how to keep going when all I felt like doing was
curling up in a corner to sleep or disappear, but I am pleased to report that I
am fully back to my own self in mind and body now, and I am cherishing this
wonderful time by sucking the marrow out of life. Having Jocelyn has
been a gift in our home. I'm enjoying my kids and homemaking more fully than I ever have. I get a kick out of doing Zumba and
other video workouts with my little rugrats these days. It's hilarious - and also kind of
difficult to not step on them with their excited frenzies about it all. I'm
currently reading a lot because nursing forces me to sit quite a bit. Right now
I'm working my way through Approaching
Zion by: Hugh Nibley and pondering on the topic of preparing my family and
associates for the Second coming of Jesus Christ. ("What does Zion look
like? How can I create that in my home? How can I foster that in my
relationships with others?") I pressure-canned chicken for the first time in
November with my family and Misty's help, and am getting ready to pressure can
beans, and to learn to sprout. I'm feeling really motivated to add a slew of
new, healthy recipes to our repertoire, particularly dietician approved and
low-meat or vegetarian dishes. (If you have any you love, I'd love if you'd
send them along!!) :) I am looking forward to see where God is going to lead
our family for residency - we find out in March. I'm excited about all the possibilities
and know that wherever we go, it will be just the right place for us.

2015 is starting out as a beautiful and exciting year for our family. Life is good. I hope things are going just as well in your corner of the world! Thanks for caring enough to read about our lives. That means a lot to me.